Mr Carr-Gregg has submitted a proposal to the Queensland government recommending that children be forced to pass an online licensing test before being allowed to bring phones and tablets to school.

The advice comes as a UK study found that 97 per cent of parents thought it was OK for teenagers below the age of 16 to own a mobile phone, despite the fact that more than 80 per cent of parents linked headaches to mobile phone use and 50 per cent to sleep deprivation and 48 per cent to behavioural problems.

Queensland father-of-three Justin Kime told news.com.au that each of his children, aged 12, 14 and 16, received a 2G mobile phone – with no internet connection - when they were in grade five because there were no phone booths on the route they walked to and from school.

It was only upon entering high school that the children were given second-hand smartphones, which they had inherited from their parents.

“It was explained to them pretty strictly that this was how it was going to work – they have a certain download limit and if they go over it we get a text message that tells us," Mr Kime said.

“They're told when they start using the internet, that if it's abused in whatever way then they lose (the phone).”

So far Mr Kime said his children had not abused the privilege; however his eldest son was recently faced with a cyber bullying problem on Facebook, which he and his wife helped him to resolve.

“He showed me a message from someone he wasn’t a friend of – and it was a threatening message,” Mr Kime said.”

“It was just schoolyard rubbish that went wrong and we worked through it with him in the proper way and told him not to respond on the phone or get involved with any of that stuff by test message, or Facebook or email. We helped him work through it and we sorted it out.”

Kids using mobile phones 1Source:Supplied

Mr Kime’s children are under strict orders not to communicate with, or accept friend requests from, people they do not know or have not met in person. The same goes for answering calls from phone numbers they do not recognise.

Simon Sharwood, Asia Pacific editor of the UK's leading technology news website theregister.co.uk told news.com.au that he and his wife gave their son a phone when he was about nine so that he could communicate with them should anything go wrong on his way to and from his school.

“My personal rationalisation is that it’s good to know ... if something a bit confronting and weird happened on the street on the way to school, then he’s got a lifeline,” he said.

“When I was seven I used to walk to school with no mobile and nobody worried about anything, so I always sort of think about why we’ve become a bit more like helicopter parents now.

“And it's a bit of a trust thing.”

A Sydney mother, who wished to remain anonymous, told news.com.au that her son had been begging for a mobile phone for two years because “he sees other kids at school with them”, but said she was adamant that he didn’t need one.

“My position is that when he starts making his own way to school, catching public transport or is old enough to go out with friends without adult supervision then we can discuss a phone,” she said.

“As for using iPhones as babysitters to keep kids quiet when you are out somewhere, here’s a novel idea, take a book or some paper and pencils along.”

Queensland mother-of-three, Kim Parker said her daughters didn’t get mobile phones until they were in high school because “any younger they would have been too young to understand how to use the phones properly”.

Ms Parker’s eldest daughter is autistic and suffers from severe panic attacks and anxiety and she said without a phone she’d have no way to contact her.

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